An 1840 Knoxville farmhouse with a documented Civil War killing, now home to Finn's
9000 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37923
Age
All Ages in dining room; 21+ in lounge after evening hours
Cost
$$$
Fine dining entrees typically $30-60; tavern menu less. Check Finn's website for current pricing.
Access
Limited Access
Historic two-story farmhouse with staircase
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1840 · Tennessee Historical Commission Marker · Civil War Field Hospital · 1864 Killing of Dr. James H. Baker · 1865 Lynching of Abner Baker
Dr. James Harvey Baker built the Baker-Peters farmhouse along the Kingston Pike west of Knoxville in 1840. The Greek Revival-influenced two-story brick farmhouse is one of the area's surviving antebellum residences and is marked by a Tennessee Historical Commission roadside marker as the Baker-Peters-Rogers House.
The house took on its dark reputation during the Civil War. After Union forces took Knoxville in 1863, Baker, a physician, continued to treat Confederate wounded at the farm. Tradition records that Knoxville postmaster William Hall reported Baker to Union authorities. Union soldiers arrived at the house, demanded the surrender of any Confederates inside, and after Baker refused and barricaded himself upstairs, shot him through a bedroom door. The bullet hole has long been a feature pointed out in the building's interior.
Dr. Baker's son, twenty-two-year-old Abner Baker, returned from service to find his father dead. In 1865 he confronted and killed William Hall. He was arrested, jailed, and on September 4, 1865, removed from his cell by a mob and lynched. The events are documented in regional Civil War and Reconstruction-era historical sources.
The house passed through several owners over the following 150 years and operated for a long stretch in the 2000s and 2010s as the Baker Peters Jazz Club. The jazz club closed; the property now houses Finn's Restaurant and Tavern, an Irish-American restaurant and bar that has retained much of the historic interior, including the staircase and bedroom door associated with Dr. Baker's death.
Sources
Staff working at successive restaurants in the Baker-Peters House have for decades reported a small but consistent set of phenomena associated with the upstairs hall and the dining-room shelves. The figure most often blamed in retelling is Abner Baker, whose lynching in 1865 closed the violent chapter of the family's wartime experience.
Reported episodes include glassware dropped from set shelves with no one nearby, lights returning on after the building has been closed and locked, whispering in the upper hall, and small objects moved between shelves and tables overnight. A photograph displayed at the host stand during the Baker Peters Jazz Club era was understood by staff to show a figure resembling Abner reflected in an upstairs window. The current operator, Finn's Restaurant and Tavern, has continued to acknowledge the house's reputation in interviews.
The bullet hole in the upstairs bedroom door associated with the 1864 killing of Dr. Baker remains in place and is the most concrete artifact of the building's documented violence. Visitors who come for dinner are not generally taken on a paranormal tour; the staff is willing to speak about the house when asked and asks that guests treat the interior with the respect it deserves.
Notable Entities
An Irish-American restaurant and tavern operating in the 1840 Baker-Peters House on Kingston Pike. The host stand reportedly displays a long-circulated photograph said to show Abner Baker, the home's most-told resident spirit.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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